Sen. Solomon Olamilekan ‘Yayi’ Adeola, who is representing Ogun West and also doubles as Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriations in the Red Chamber was the topic of the day as he created a scene at the Senate earlier today.
“No closed door, let’s do it open” was all he uttered upon learning of this colleagues desire to conduct a closed-door session on the issue of budget padding raised by Senator Abdul Ningi.
On Monday in a Press Conference, Sen. Abdul Ningi had accused the National Assembly of padding the 2024 budget with a massive sum of N3tn while clarifying that he never accused the president of running two budgets.
“At no time did I say Bola Ahmed Tinubu is implementing two budgets.
“There was no time, at no time did I say Bola Tinubu was biased against the north. The Hausa version is there. At no time did I say Bola Ahmed Tinubu is implementing the N25tn budget.
“I said we have established beyond reasonable doubt that N25tn so far has nexus in the budget.
“That means that there is money, there is a project and then there is location. But we are yet to ascertain N3tn of that budget.
“We have established the N3tn of that budget, we have not established its location and the place.”
“But I said going forward, the budget evaluation is ongoing. And I said lastly, the intention of the northern senators as regards budgetary allocation was to meet the Senate President with our findings and subsequently meet President Bola Ahmed Tinubu with our findings.
“So if one is questioning our desire to relate with Bola Tinubu, how will I say that the findings of the Northern Senators Forum will go to the Senate president and then to the president and commander-in-chief.”
On Senator Solomon Olamilekan ‘Yayi’ Adeola’s part, he initially called for a Press Conference on Sunday but postponed it and promised to deal with on the floor of the house.
“As you people can see, many Senators are here with me across the six geo-political zones to react to what a senator said at the weekend on alleged two versions of the 2024 budget but after realizing that there are laid down procedures and processes to follow in dealing with such a matter involving an insider, we have decided, to shift the venue of reaction to the Senate Chamber on Tuesday, after which, journalists would be briefed adequately.